Virtuous reality

Virtuous reality

One is always happy to see that the free expression of ideas is still defended in Mr. Jefferson’s county but, good grief, does the Rutherford Institute [“‘Virginity Rocks’ t-shirts spark Albemarle High controversy,” News from This Just In, May 13, 2008] have nothing better to do with its time than defend the right of a student to wear a “VIRGINITY ROCKS” t-shirt to school?! Or, for that matter, does a school have nothing better to do than forbid it? I cannot imagine that there are that many students who would even want to wear such a shirt, thereby piously proclaiming publicly their virtue in a manner that, according to the New Testament, Jesus himself condemned. One wonders if the Rutherford Institute would defend with equal vigor the right of a student to wear the same t-shirt with the first two letters of “ROCKS” changed to SU?!

Jeff BakerIvy

Where’s the dough?

I am writing to elucidate two things to the tax-paying public. Occasionally, there are in fact “pizza parties” given to a small number of inmates whose cell block is chosen the winner of the jail’s “Weekly Clean Block Program.” For the more highly populated cell blocks who win, however, their incentive is typically a pack of Nabs. Pizza is a rarity for anyone [“Inside Story,” Mailbag, March 11, 2008]!

As an inmate at ACRJ, I too wonder: Who pays for such things? Is it the tax-paying public, or does the jail’s commissary network somehow regenerate some of their HUGE profits back into the “circular flow” of the jail’s economy?

Our most treasured staple, the Ramen Noodle, cost us inmates 83 cents each and without a doubt generates a HUGE profit for someone, considering they cost $1 for 10 at the local grocer and certainly even less when purchased in bulk.

I would only find it appropriate that these profits help pay for officer training, inmate incentives, and for the many self-help programs us inmates are so fortunate to be offered at this facility.

If it is, in fact, taxpayer money that pays for such things, and NOT these aforementioned revenues, it would certainly be an atrocity.

Paul Wayne EddyAlbemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail

Nothing uglier

I would just like to comment on the article about Coran Capshaw wanting to build an amphitheater in Roanoke [“Roanoke Times irked by Red Light amphitheater project,” News from This Just In @ c-ville.com, May 20, 2008]. That’s all well and good if it turns out to be a better looking one than what we have here in Charlottesville. I (and I’m not the only one) think the one here is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I can’t imagine what the entertainment thinks when they come here to do concerts. The only way you can see the stage is if you’re down front or midway back. If you’re in the back, forget it.

I still say one day the rubber bands are going to break on that thing and wipe out the entire Downtown Mall.

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